nightmare

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“
Monitoring services alone only let you know the nightmare is about to begin.

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Definitions (9)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A dream arousing feelings of intense fear, horror, and distress.
  2. noun An event or experience that is intensely distressing.
  3. noun A demon or spirit once thought to plague sleeping people.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (46)

  • I thought that finally the nightmare was all over, that finally… But the next day you were colder and more silent than ever. —  The Forbidden Daffodils
  • She wanted to close her eyes and rest for just a few minutes and maybe even pretend this nightmare was all over. —  Garwood, Julie - Ransom
  • Your nightmare is your own, Elizabeth, your torment yours to keep. —  Garwood, Julie - Gentle Warrior
  • Their nightmare is the ever-climaxing horror story they have been living since the creation of Israel: my nightmare is my helplessness to end it. —  Palestine Chronicle - Headlines
  • In an editorial, the paper considers the fallout for India from what it calls the nightmare on Wall Street, and says things aren't too bleak, with an industrial growth rate of 7.1 per cent in July and the global price of oil falling below $95. —  CFR.org -
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, a female demon that afflicts sleeping people : night, night; see night + mare, goblin (from Old English; see mer- in Indo-European roots).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English nightemare, niʒtmare (not in Anglo-Saxon) (= Middle Dutch nachtmære, Dutch nachtmerrie = Middle Low German nachtmār = German nachtmahr); from night + mare.
 

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/ˈnaɪtmɛr/
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